Thursday, December 12, 2013

From aircraft engineer to environment advocate

Pacific Nature Conference Closing Bulletin
2013, Suva Fiji -Love for his people and his
homeland is what drives Premier Jackson Kiloe, the Premier of Solomon Islands’
Choiseul Province.

“I could see that we were
facing problems of our forests being cut down and damaging the environment and
nothing was done about it,” he said.

This was what caused him to
put his hand up for the role.

“I had no background
knowledge of the environment, but I took up the job because I had to fight for
what was best for our environment and the people,” he said.

Premier Kiloe worked in
Australia for seven years as an aircraft engineer before he returned home in
1997.

He said his Australian
experience was relatively challenging because he was the only Solomon Islander
where he worked.

“I was complimented on being
so hard working, despite the challenges I faced,” he said.

The father of five said he thrived on
challenges though.

“I faced these a lot while growing up,” he
shared.

“My father was just a normal
farmer, we didn’t have enough money but we didn’t see ourselves poor because we
had everything around us that we could rely on.”

Premier Kiloe returned to the
Solomon Islands when his father called him to return to look after his mother
who was ill.

“I couldn’t do anything else
even though I had elder siblings who could look after my mother, but I also
missed everything about home,” he said.

Premier Kiloe said upon his
return he realised the significant exploitation of their forests and he knew he
had to do something to save it.

“The environment is home to
everyone and everyone needs to be accountable for the actions they do to it,”
he said.

Josephine Navula is a member of the Media Team providing
coverage of the 9th Pacific Islands Conference on Nature Conservation and
Protected Areas from 2 to 6 December in Suva, Fiji. This is a partnership
between the Fiji National University (FNU), University of the South Pacific
(USP), SPREP and Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) whereby a team of 10
journalism students are mentored by senior reporters as they cover the
conference. This activity is funded by the Pacific Assistance Media
Scheme (PACMAS).